Bluewater cruiserr

Here's a design from Australia prepared by the first woman to sail nonstop unassisted around the world, Kay Cottee. Cottee will market this boat, and Aussie Scott Jutson, known for his fast boats, did the design work on this project. It's hard to do a complex design like this justice in this review format so forgive me if I miss some areas that might be of interest to you.

It's a great looking boat. The freeboard is high and the ends are short. Max beam is well aft and looks a little odd to my eye. The L/B is 3.45 and the D/L is 178. Draft is variable with the hydraulically-lifted bulbed keel going from 5 feet, 6 inches in the up position to 9 feet down. The wide stern requires two rudders to insure that one rudder is always in the water when the boat heels. Note how far aft the keel fin is. It makes me wonder if the keel position was dictated to some degree by the cabin sole heights, structural considerations and the interior layout. In fact, maybe that's why we see the beam so far aft. It might be moved aft in order to move the Longitudinal Center of Buoyancy aft to support the keel weight. If you put these individual characteristics together they seem to make sense.

The rig is a masthead type with well-swept triple spreaders, about 20 degrees. The staysail is self-tacking. The SA/D is 17.17. The spar is aluminum and the standing rigging is Dyform. The boom is the Leisure Furl model. If the conservative SA/D bothers you, don't fret-there is a 140-horsepower Yanmar to push the boat along in the light stuff.

There are accommodations on this boat for three cruising couples. One couple gets upper and lower berths while the other two enjoy spacious doubles. The owner's stateroom is forward and has its own head with shower stall attached. The aft staterooms also have their own heads but only the starboard stateroom has a shower stall. All three staterooms are more than adequate and in fact are very comfortable. The drawings show "viewing ports" through the bottom of the hull right next to the heads in both quarter cabins. Hmmmmmm. "That's a funny looking fish, Mommy."

I like this galley. Someone involved with this project cooks. You can pass dishes right over the bulkhead dividing the galley from the dinette and conveniently deposit them in the sinks. There are front-loading refers and a top-loading freezer. There's lots of counter space. Most guests will dine in the raised saloon at the big dinette, but if you have guests who chew with their mouths open, you can make them eat at the mini-dinette adjacent to the galley. The aft starboard head is also accessible from the saloon. There is a large fo'c'sle with a workbench.

I like the styling of this deck. It's Euro but the shapes are well defined and that suits my eye. The cockpit is huge. There are two wheels and room to walk between them directly to the broad swim step with its hidden swimming ladder. Forward of the wheels is a fixed, drop-leaf table for dining. The mainsheet traveler is on the housetop. The windlass is in a flush well forward. The self-tacking jib track allows for up to a 16-degree sheeting angle. This is good.

This boat is launched and sailing and the pictures show the interior looking marvelous in rich veneers. Fixtures and fittings are all Italian in chrome or gold-plated brass. You can be certain of both looking good and feeling comfortable on this cruiser.